


Care Not For Cersei

by Sookiestark



Series: Twelve Days of Westerosi Christmas [1]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-18
Updated: 2017-12-18
Packaged: 2019-02-16 16:21:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,018
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13057662
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sookiestark/pseuds/Sookiestark
Summary: Instead of Robert ignoring Joffrey, he decides to show interest. It changes everything...





	Care Not For Cersei

**Author's Note:**

> i was reading how Joffrey cried everytime Robert tried to come near and it made Robert leave him alone. This story is about what if Robert had tried harder. 
> 
> So.. just to clarify, Joffrey and Myrcella are Cersei and Jaime's biological children. But all the rest are Robert's.

Robert cared not for Cersei. She was always pouting, or complaining, or preening over herself. She never checked in with him about his day and all a King’s problems. The Queen never asked him if his day was hard trying to rule Seven Kingdoms, each with competing interests. She never asked him about if his back hurt or if the Iron Throne was uncomfortable. She never wanted to sleep with him and when she did she made him feel like she would rather be anywhere than underneath him.

King Robert Baratheon drank more to deal with the disdain on her proud beautiful face. After all, he didn’t have to care for her or even like her, as long as he bedded her once in awhile and made princes to rule after him. So, Robert drank and hunted and bedded anything that walked in skirts and showed interest in him. Because Cersei had no interest in him. 

She had had interest in him once. When she first arrived in King’s Landing, she had looked shyly at him with her big green eyes and touched his arm lightly giggling. She was a pretty girl and she came with all her father’s money and his allegiance. Jon Arryn had told him he must do it, so he had. Something must have happened their wedding night but he could not remember as he had drank too much. Sometimes, he wanted to ask her where his happy interested bride had went but he would see her face, and instead of asking, he would drink more.

Robert knew there was something wrong with their marriage, but he didnt know how to fix it or even if he needed to try. His father and mother had always seemed so happy, so in love. He had wanted that for his marriage, but perhaps Lyanna had been his true love and with her death, he would never find a happy marriage.

Regardless of whether they were happy together or even shared a bed frequently, the Queen became pregnant. 

On the day she gave birth to the prince, he was out hunting in the kingswood. Robert was anxious concerned for her and the baby and so he left to do what he did best, use his sword. When the Kingsguard came and told her the Prince had arrived, he had come right back to the Red Keep. Robert had ridden his horse as hard as he could to get back to see his son.

On the first day of Joffrey’s life, Robert had pushed into the Queen’s chambers with the Lannister guards and taken his tiny son in his big strong hands. Cersei had protested but he had shushed her. After all, this was his son. The girls they would have could be her domain but this was his. His son, his legacy, his heir. The Kingslayer, Jaime Lannister, was there and even had the gall to make motion like he might touch his sword. 

“Easy... Kingslayer, your head can be on a pike like the rest of the traitors. I am not an old sick man and you will not stab your sword through my back without steel crossing. This is my son and I will hold him anytime I please.”

Robert couldn’t get enough of him and his son brightened every time he saw his father. In fact, the first time he held him the baby grabbed his finger with his tiny infant hand. Robert had laughed, a big booming laugh, that had scared the infant and made him start wailing. The King knew how to comfort babies. After all, he had more of his share of bastards and had always cared for them. He thought of Mya Stone in the Eyrie and how he had rocked her to sleep. He had wanted to send for her but Cersei did not seem keen to the idea so he had not. The King hugged his son closer to his chest making shushing noises and in less than a minute the infant was calmed. 

Cersei had named him Joffrey. He could care less what the boy's name was. It was HIS boy.

The boy had white blonde fuzz, which made him look bald, and green eyes like his mother. It didn’t matter because he was his son. 

That night he had roast partridge that he had killed during hunting with his wife alone in his chambers. They drank pear brandy from tyrosh and she said how much she loved pears. He had drank too much and woke up next to the pretty redheaded who worked in the kitchens.The next day he had twelve pear trees planted in the garden. They would bear every color of pear red, gold, and green. Sometimes, he would see her sitting underneath them with their son in the grass, eating them. 

After Joffrey, things hadn’t gotten any better with him and Cersei. Robert continued to drink and hunt and whore. Cersei continued to preen and plot and stare at him with disdain. It didn’t matter much because he had Joffrey. He would spend at least an hour a day with him in the nursery, playing. When he arrived at the nursery, Cersei would leave. However, each day it took her longer to leave him with his son. Once he looked at her face, he saw her smiling at the sight of the two of them playing with wooden horses on the floor. Sometimes when they were playing or wrestling together, she would laugh. 

When Myrcella came, she was all blonde and green eyed like her brother. She was a pretty, tiny thing, but Robert couldn’t be bothered. He was getting Joffrey used to sitting in a saddle on his pony. 

One day when Myrcella was about a year old, he went to the nursery and saw her playing with her stuffed bears and stuffed lions. She had set them in little chairs and was pretending the lion was king, and babbling in her almost words. When he tickled her she laughed sweetly and he decided maybe he would take her visit with her more frequently. He was delighted how smart she was. He had scooped her up laughing and tickling her, “We need to get you a stag. A stag is the King, not a lion.”

He spent the rest of the afternoon, playing with Myrcella, cancelling his Small Council meeting just to spend more time with her. A few times, Joff got jealous and tried to hurt her. Robert corrected the boy and reminded him that there was plenty of attention for both of them. 

As he walked back to his chambers, he thought that he would like to spend more time with his daughter. Robert was walking past Cersei’s rooms. Ruling was still worse than ever and he wanted a fight battles, more than anything, but he had a son and a daughter and somehow that made things brighter. Cersei had given him the two things that had even come close to giving him the joy fighting did, his son and daughter.

On the way back to his room, he saw Jaime Lannister at Cersei’s chamber door, looking surprised to see the King there. Robert pushed passed him. The Kingslayer said some smart remark, but Robert didn’t even hear him. He wanted to see his wife. 

Cersei was readying herself for bed. Her beautiful hair was spread out over her shoulders. She was wearing a simple night dress in white, but in the firelight she might have been the prettiest thing he had ever seen her wear.

He wondered if she had always been so beautiful or was it the idea that this lovely creature had given him his son and his daughter. Perhaps he had never looked at her and saw through all the surface arrogance and pride. She was just a woman and they are vain creatures. He could not blame her too much. After all, it was her nature.

Cersei stood up to put her robe on to cover up. 

“No, please,” he says.

He looks into her eyes, really looks, wondering how he never noticed the color so much like the green of the sea. He touches her hair. “Don't cover up. I feel like I have just seen you and I want to see more. You are so beautiful.” 

She looks at him, irritated like he's teasing her or being childish. However when she catches his gaze, she softens. 

He sits on her bed and takes her hand in his, just holding it. 

She asks, sitting next to him, “Why are you here, Robert? Are you drunk?”

“No...I was with our children in the nursery and I wanted to say good night. Joff is getting so big. I think he should get a horse soon. Not a pony.” 

“Surely, he is too little.” 

“Pah! He is is the perfect age. We want a warrior like Baelor and Maekar, not a bookish weakling. We need to get some foster brothers. Maybe Ned’s boy or some boy. We want him to be fearless and he needs boys his age, boys to be close to, boys he can count on.”

“He is so little..”

“He is. But he will grow soon enough. He will be King. I was in the nursery and I was playing with the children and.. I just wanted to say thank you. Thank you for the children. He’s stubborn and pouts a little too much, but stubbornness and strong feelings are part being a Baratheon.” 

She seemed touched by his emotion. He remembered his father had been a big man given to big emotions. He wanted to be more like his father. Steffon Baratheon had loved his children deeply and intensely and cared for their mother. He wanted to be the same

She touched his chest and looked at him. “You are being silly, Robert.”

“I know we were not in love and I am man given to strong passions, appetites fit for a King. I thought there was a hole that couldn’t ever be filled, but I was wrong. Joffrey and Myrcella make it less..”. 

Cersei stood up and smiled a real smile. Slightly unsure, she stepped out of her nightdress 

“Gods, Cersei... how have I never seen how beautiful you are.” 

She pushed him on the bed, climbed on top of her husband and silenced him with a kiss. He was not drunk and when she guided him into her. It felt like the first time that night, like he had never been with her before this night.

For twelve days, they spent in bed. Everytime she tried to get him out of bed, he would say he wanted to hear more about her and see more of her. They had food, partridges and pears, cheese and boar, berries and cream, and wine. Every day, they would send the servants to fill the King’s huge copper tub with hot water and salts for the King and Queen. Besides that, no one was to bother them. 

Master of Coin, Petyr Baelish said to the King’s Hand on the tenth day, “Aren’t we going to request the King to ever leave the Queen’s bed?”

“No, leave the King alone. Let him be. He is where he should be with the Queen.”

When they finally emerged, Cersei was radiant, almost beaming, and Robert felt perhaps he had always been reaching for something that he already held in his hand. 

Her belly grew round. Every night he found himself in her bed, where he kissed her until she cooed, and screamed, and curled up next to him, like a kitten. Almost a year later, she gave birth to twins, dark haired, blue eyed babies, strong and big red faced Baratheons.

He had still gone hunting. In fact, he felt real fear this time she went to the birthing bed. He wondered if he would ever be able to get over if she was taken from him. When the Kingsguard came to tell him that the Queen was well, he had hugged the knight.

When he came to see her, she had been overjoyed. “There are twins… I have four children. I have four children.” He kissed her and gave her a ruby ring the size of a quail’s egg. They named them Lyonel and Lanna. 

He was a man given to bad habits and so, he did sometimes sleep with another serving wench or a visit to the brothel, after too much drinking. It was not uncommon for the King to bang on the Queen’s door apologizing and begging for her to forgive him. After a week or two, Cersei would relent and open the door. He knew her weakness was their children and it was his weakness, too. 

Sometimes, he noticed that the Kingslayer would look askance at him as he ticked his wife or pinched her bottom playfully. Cersei would swat him or roll her eyes, but later she would pull him in an alcove and run her fingers over his whole body, kiss him and call him my love. He pulled her on his lap as often as he could. When she kissed him, her long hair around them; it was like being surrounded by sunlight. She would whisper wicked things in his ears and the things they would do in bed would make a whore blush. 

Robert realized he loved Cersei. He loved her for her beauty, and their children, the delightful things they would do in bed, but he loved her for her intelligence and her ability to soothe him. When he was frustrated or aggravated, he started to seek counsel from the Queen. Even though, he didn’t often take her advice. He liked laying in her lap and having her soothe his anger. 

They had another child another boy with dark hair and blue eyes, Tommen.

He taught his sons to ride and hunt and use a sword. At six, Joffrey could hold a sword and do well against bigger boys. His eldest son was small compared to him, and took after the Lannisters. But Lyonel and Tommen were tall and strong. At ten, Lyonel could lift his father’s war hammer. 

Once when Joffrey was eight, Robert caught him threatening Tommen’s cat. Tommen loved his cats, almost as much as he loved horses and tourneys. Joffrey could sometimes be mean spirited and Robert had tried to stop it, whenever he saw it. Robert pulled his eldest aside and told him that kings and knights protected the weak, the smallfolk, the vulnerable. Maybe his youngest brother liked cats too much but they were still brothers. Robert proceeded to tell him the story of when his uncle Stannis and his wounded goshawk. They laughed like two men who know a secret, but still do the right thing.

Robert told his son, “When you are strong, you never need to make those less than you feel weak. You lift them up.” 

 

When Jon Arryn died, Robert went North with his wife and children to collect a Hand of the King and a betrothed for the King. If he had been denied a Stark girl, at least, his son would have one to wed. Ned came back to King’s Landing as did his children; Bran, Sansa, and Arya. The children brought their direwolves and though they were as big as monsters, Robert liked watching the creatures play in the gardens and run down the hallways, frightening the household staff. It always made him laugh.

Sansa seemed a sweet girl and Joff seemed pleased with the match. Bran became Robert’s own squire. Cersei had mentioned something about her cousin, Lancel, wanting to be his squire. Lancel looked too much like the Kingslayer and he did not need another Lannister at court.

He gave the Queen a string of pearls that fell to her belly that was starting to swell with their sixth child, to soothe any slight she might have felt. Robert sank to her knees, pushed her skirts over his head, and pleasured her with his mouth, until she called out his name. He still loved her and could scarcely believe that after five children, he still wanted her most of all. 

King Robert I didn't see his sixth child’s birth. He had been hunting while his wife labored. It was a difficult birth and took longer than all the rest. Robert had been drinking and the boar gored him. He was brought back to King’s Landing with his squire, Bran, pale-faced beside him. 

On his deathbed, Robert drew his sons and daughters close as Ned, the Hand of the King, watched. He told them he loved them and to be good. The girls cried as they were lead from the room.He sent everyone from the room, after he signed the papers, making Lord Eddard regent to the Prince. He took Joff’s hand and squeezed it tight.

“Joffrey, Ned will be your regent. You are my son and the King, but he is my brother in all but name. He will guide you like Jon Arryn did to me. One day soon, he will be your good father. Listen to him. Learn from him. He will not lead you astray.” 

There was still no word from the Queen. She would not be here to see him go. 

Robert’s last thoughts were of his sons, Lyonel and Tommen, who looked so much like him, and his son Joffrey who looked nothing like him, but had the Baratheon will and bluster. He hoped that they would all be well. He hoped his girls would have good men to marry who would love them. 

He hoped he could spend the afterlife fighting battles in the body of his youth.

“Ned, promise me . You will take the boy under your wing. Make a good marriage for my girls. The little ones need direction. Ned, promise me you will care for Cersei. I have loved her and she has stayed by me through all my faults. Care for Cersei.” 

With those words, Robert passed from his body.


End file.
